Desired Too (27 page)

“What?” I asked, finally unable to take his silent cross-examine.

“You’ve impressed me, Raquel, and I don’t say that often. There were times when you got into some shit and proved to be extremely intelligent and strong with cunning skills to get yourself out of trouble. There were also some situations where you needed some help but, all in all, you handled yourself very well.”

I couldn’t help the slight smile that touched the side of my face. I couldn’t help but to feel a little good about myself, hearing the praise coming from him. I could tell he didn’t give it often.

“I understand why you’re hesitant in telling Angel what’s going on. He knows a little about what you were doing in Cali, but not everything. I didn’t tell him everything because of the same reason why you won’t say anything to him now. I would like to say he’s changed over the years, but I don’t think that when it comes to you it’s true. Still, he has a right to know what’s coming, or, hell, what’s already here.”

“I know, and I’m telling him as soon as Ira drops me off.”

Lincoln started shaking his head before I even completed my sentence. “No, you let Junior there take you wherever you need to go from now on.” Then Lincoln pointed to the kid standing by the truck and Ira.

I shook my head. “Why on earth would I do that? I mean, he looks twelve. How could he protect me better than Ira?”

“Because,” Lincoln said as he pointed out of the window, “That son of a bitch is the reason why you’re in this shit to begin with. I know he’s told you that he can’t do shit about this, but he could if he really wanted to, believe that. I’ve been watching you for the past few weeks and every time you’re with him, he finds some excuse to leave you alone. Think about that, Raquel. You’re smart, so I know you understand that’s not supposed to happen. If he were watching your back, he wouldn’t leave you alone. There’s some shit that’s going on, so the sooner you tell Angel about this, the better things will be.”

I asked, “What do you mean by that?” I leaned in conspiratorially. “What do you know that I don’t?”

Lincoln, unfortunately, didn’t get to answer me. We were interrupted by a very loud and angry voice above us.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

We both looked up to see a seething Ira standing by the table. I looked at Lincoln, who was actually smiling at him.

Lincoln looked behind Ira and nodded. “Raquel, this is Junior. Junior, Ms. Waters needs a ride to wherever, then take her to Angel.”

Ira interjected, “Hey, wait one gotdamn-,” but Lincoln continued to ignore him.

“Don’t you leave her side, understand?” Lincoln told Junior. “Call Hugo directly and let him know where you two are and what you’re doing. You watch for everything, understand?”

“Yes, sir, I will.”

Lincoln stood and met Ira eye-to-eye, mean mug to mean mug. I have to say, Lincoln was winning the “who’s the scariest” contest hands down. Shit, I even had to move my eyes from his intense glare, and it wasn’t even aimed in my direction. I could also see we were gaining an audience, so I slid out of the booth.

“Roxy…” Ira started, not moving his eyes from Lincoln.

Ira was trying to hold his own. He was definitely prideful, so I didn’t expect anything less.

“Ira, I’ll be okay. If you get any word from your contacts, let me know. And thanks for everything.” I quickly moved to Junior and we headed towards the exit. When I looked back at the pair, I could see words being exchanged.

Man ole’ man, I would have given anything to be a fly on the wall right at that very moment. No telling what they said to each other, but looking at Ira ball up his fists at his sides said everything I needed to know.

“Ms. Waters, where do you need to go?”

He knew who Ira was because Ira’s picture had been handed to him back in San Francisco. Ira was the initial reason for the trip to Philadelphia. Who he didn’t know was the man that Ira was currently speaking with. He wasn’t the kind of person that liked unknowns, so he took the man’s picture and sent it off to his contact.

He leaned back and watched the heated conversation between Ira and this mystery man while he waited. This was his fourth cup of coffee, and he could feel the jitters filling his body, but the wait was well worth it. His plans foiled, he had no other choice but to sit there and hope for another opening. Yes, he could still complete the mission, even after the pickup truck hit Ira’s rental car. He thought about still going along with his plans when the new player, who he’d noticed watching the couple just as long as he had, interjected.

He watched as this new player talked to the woman for a long time, while Ira went to see about his rental. He wasn’t sure if the woman and the mystery man knew each other or not. At first, the woman stood and looked to be leaving. He got ready, hoping that she would walk out to the car, but she didn’t.

No something the new player said to her caused her to sit. He was extremely disappointed and even thought about executing his plan anyway, but he didn’t. He exercised his control and decided to wait it out.

He heard Ira say, moving closer to the new player. “You got fucking nerve coming here. And your fucking boss is paying-”

“Shut the fuck up,” said the new player with such vibrato in his voice that the damn windows shook. “Don’t forget where you are. You’re in my fucking city, and if you don’t take heed to my warning, you’ll die in my fucking city.”

Ira smugly grinned, “Oh, you think so?”

“Oh, I know so.” The new player interjected moved closer to Ira. “Keep your distance from Raquel. Do you understand? If you come anywhere near her again, it’s your death sentence. This is your one and only warning, and I’m only giving you a warning because of Raquel.”

“Why don’t you just kill me now? Don’t talk about it.”

The new player laughed. “Oh, dear boy, it’s not me you’ll have to worry about. In fact, don’t listen to me and please call her. Go see her too. I would love to see what he does to you.”

The new player laughed again and walked away.

Just as he watched the new player move past Ira, his phone signaled that he’d received a text message. Finally, he got the news from his contact on who the new player was. He opened his phone, and once he read the information and saw the picture, he turned pale.

He quickly closed the text, found the number he needed and dialed.

“Is it done already?” the voice answered.

“I should fucking kill you now!” “the fly on the wall” seethed.

The voice paused a beat before he asked, “What happened?”

“You lied, that’s what happened. You said he would not be involved, and I just saw him.”

He’d never been afraid of anyone or anything, but the thought of Drake Lincoln put just enough of doubt in him to pause and think this assignment through.

“What are you talking about? Who did you see?”

“You should have told me that he was involved. The price has just gone up. If you want this done, you’re gonna have to pay me more. I would need to disappear for a while afterwards. I will not have Drake Lincoln coming after me because of your screw up.”

“Calm down and tell me what happened.”

He told the person on the other end everything, every sordid detail, including what type of coffee he had. When “the fly on the wall” finished, he heard silence, then he heard the voice on the phone lose its cool.

“Fuck!”

“I told you, you’re in over your head. My price has just tripled.”

“What!”

“If you want this done, pay me. Otherwise do it yourself.” “The fly on the wall” disconnected the call, paid his bill and left the restaurant. He was still going to take care of Ira because his employer had stressed that fact. However, the girl was an added incentive. She was a bonus that, at first, was worth his while. Now, he wasn’t so sure.

It would be interesting though, to see if he could match wit against wit, brawn against brain, with Drake Lincoln. The price on the man’s head, because of his life with the CIA, could lead HIM to retire early. It’s something to think about anyway.

Damn this woman… my woman.

“Angel,” I felt her whisper against my lips.

I reached my arm around her hip and pulled her close to me.
I can’t get enough of this woman.

Raquel was trying her very best to leave, but I wouldn’t let her. I had her up against the wall in the garage, kissing her, caressing her for about fifteen minutes now.

I finally released her lips, but I didn’t release her. I slowly traced my lips along her cheek to her neck, feeling the rise of her skin meet my lips.

“
Le tue labbra sono dolci come il miele. Ogni volta che ti bacio dimentico dove sono
.
Sono in fiamme per te.
”

“Angel,” she whispered again, causing the tent in front of my shorts to lengthen. Her hands moved through my hair as she moaned in my ear.

Fuuuucccck
!

My hands instantly went to her jean-encased ass and brought her up against me. I felt like I was in high school as I grinded against her, trying to get to parts of her that she tried to keep hidden.

My lips drifted to her ear, and I kissed her lightly there. I was attempting to behave, but fuck that. I wanted her. I started pulling her shirt up.

“
Sono in fiamme per te
, Raquel.”

“I can’t, Angel. I have to go.”

I couldn’t help the growl that escaped my mouth. “Why?”

I looked into her eyes, trying my best to keep my anger in check. She didn’t have to work; I’d told her this multiple times. She was stubborn as shit, though. It was all about that independent woman bullshit that kept her from letting go and letting me take care of her. She gave me some sob story that she needed to be her own woman. She didn’t want to rely on “no man.” I tuned her out after she said that crap. Instead of arguing further, I let her believe that she could do what she wanted.

I was trying to be a good boyfriend.

I was being supportive.

But…You know I’ll have my way, right?

Raquel rolled her eyes at my question and brought her hands to my bare chest.

“You know why. I have a few meetings to get to today. If I’m going to start my new consulting business, I need to keep my commitments.”

“Yeah, and what about your commitment to me?”

I hostilely brought my hand in her hair and gripped tight. “I need you, Raquel.
Sono in fiamme per te
.”

I didn’t wait for her to say shit else to me. I was taking what belonged to me. Fuck whatever she had planned.

I invaded her mouth with my tongue, sweeping aggressively, hungrily, demandingly. She was back up against the wall behind her. My hands were up underneath her shirt, snatching her jean buckle open and bringing my fingers to her warmth.

She didn’t fight me this time. She actually spread her legs just enough to give me better access to her sweet heat.

Just as I stroked her, expertly, her leg moved voluntarily up against my hip. Now, if I could just get her undressed and...

“Fuck!” My phone started up with a double beep.

Shit, not again
. I had assigned that ringtone specifically to the phone Darrell used for immediate emergencies.

Raquel, who didn’t have a clue what that ringtone meant, groaned and frowned.

“Baby, what are you doing?” She looked at me, her eyes wide and breath coming quick. “Baby…” she called painfully, and that sound of need from my woman was undoing me. I started moving in her again, saying to myself,
If Darrell really needs me, he will call aga
-

“Fuck!” My phone had gone off again.

I gave Raquel my apologies with my eyes and reached for the phone in my pocket.

“This shit better be good,” I bit through gritted teeth.

“We need to talk. It’s important, boss.”

Hearing the abrupt and clipped tone in his voice caught my attention.

“Okay. Are you coming here?” I probed.

“No, can you meet at the warehouse on Commerce?”

“Okay, I’ll see you in twenty,” I said simply, then hung up.

As I put the phone back in my pocket, I looked at a very pissed, very flushed Raquel. She was standing by her car’s driver door.

I crooked my finger, signaling for her to come to me.

She shook her head. “I’m not falling for the banana in the tailpipe.”

“Banana in the what?” I countered, utterly confused, but aware that whatever we had going a minute ago was gone.

“Go handle your business, Angel. I have things to do.”

She turned to get into her car, but I was on her before she took her next breath. I brought my left hand around her head to turn her into me and kissed her lips.

“Don’t ever deny me my fill of your taste,
Cara Mia
.”

I watched her carefully, and it was at  that moment, when I looked heavily into her eyes, that I finally saw what I’d been waiting for, what I needed from her.

However, I didn’t say what I’d been holding close to me for weeks. Instead, I kissed her again and said, “Dinner tonight. You and me. 7pm. We’ll go to that French Restaurant you’ve been dying to try on 18
th
Street.”

She shook her head and grinned. “It would be nice if you would ask me to dinner, for once, instead of telling me. Maybe you could say please once, or twice even.”

I grinned myself and caressed her cheek with a lone finger. “
Please
wear that dark purple dress I love so much. You know the one.”

She shook her head again. “Are you referring to the purple dress you keep replacing because you always rip it off my body? Is that the dress you are speaking of?”

My grin grew at the fond memories of how perfect that dress fit on her perfect body and how it felt ripping the dress off her the moment we got home. “That would be the very dress I’m speaking of.”

“Uh huh, and is there anything else I can do for you?”

I leaned in and, before I kissed her lips, I replied inches from them. “There is, but I’ll wait until later.”

I kissed her again, then stepped back so she could get into the car. I watched her drive away, my mind no longer on her, but on the phone call I’d received from Darrell.

I waited until the car disappeared from sight before I closed the garage and headed back upstairs to the apartment. With each step I took, I could feel a transformation happening. It was something in Darrell’s voice that had me on edge. What was odd to me though was the lack of urgency to call him back. Actually, I should have been calling him back right this very moment and demanding that he talk to me about this right now. This could have been life or death. Fuck, for all I knew, it could have been about Raquel. I said this before; there was something going on with her, and that feeling hadn’t gone away. She refused to tell me, so I decided to put Darrell on it. I told him to figure it out and tell me what was going on once he did.

It had been a few weeks, and he hadn’t gotten back to me yet. But, again, I wasn’t tripping off that. In fact, it wasn’t in the forefront of my mind and that had me perplexed. I should have been going half out of my mind right now, especially when it had to do with the love of my life.

Did you catch the title that I just gave her? Yeah, it’s like that!

Anyway, that’s how it had always been. Every time we parted, I didn’t stop worrying about her until she was in my presence. However, for some reason, as she drove away, I wasn’t concerned. I was strangely content, which was odd in itself, and I knew it, but as I said, that didn’t concern me at the time. I would realize why I wasn’t too concerned with Raquel’s safety later.

What was concerning to me, what had the blood in my veins set to boil was Darrell’s call. Things had been quiet around here. It was a complete change from a week ago. There was, of course, the normal shit. Someone was always testing me, seeing if I had the balls to back up the shit that fell from my mouth. People still wanted to try me since Lincoln, my enforcer, wasn’t a factor anymore. I also learned someone was working their way through my organization, throwing discord where they could. Either my shipments were highjacked or they just simply disappeared without a trace. What was fucked up was that no one seemed to know where the shipments went or who was responsible. In our regional meetings, some of the other families started to question my toughness, my competence. You could imagine how frustrated and impatient I was with everything. My temper was at an all-time high.

But, as I said, all of a sudden, things had gone quiet. It was actually a little too quiet, too peaceful. It was as if the eye of a hurricane was passing over me, and you know what they say about those kinds of storms; the winds are always stronger on the other side of the eye.

War was coming. I felt its rumble throughout my body. The atmosphere around me was beginning to unsettle. Shit wasn’t right. It was as simple as that. I felt it. I knew it. It was due actually. Which brought my mind instantly to my brother. Eddie had been quiet as well, but not by actions. For example, I couldn’t prove it, but I knew he was responsible for sabotaging the shipments. I know you’re probably wondering why he would hurt the name of our family, by doing this. But the family wasn’t his concern at the moment; it was mine. And, if you remember, he wanted what was mine.

This family belonged to me, so every failure belonged to me as well. He’d been the reason for the questioning, the uncertainty that families were expressing. He’d been running his mouth all over the city, throughout the US, and to our interests overseas. They had never found a reason to question me before. I’d run everything the way my father had, with a few changes, of course. No one complained about the changes because I was making them rich beyond their imagination.

Now all of a sudden, people wanted to complain. My beloved brother was busy preparing for my demise, sowing the seed of doubt for anyone that would listen.

Yeah, war was coming, and I would be ready.

I moved quickly to my bedroom to get dressed. As I walked into my closet, I believed that today was going to be the shit of all days. Again, my mind couldn’t grasp why this feeling was afflicting me, but it was there, and it was strong. So, I got ready for war.

My eyes fell on the many suits I owned. I traveled my hand along Brioni, Givenchy, Alexander Amosu, Dolce, Burberry, Versace, Brooks Brothers, and Tom Ford, but the one that caught my eye, the one that got me in the right frame of mind was Armani. I’m not sure why, but I think it was the meaning, the history behind these Italian-made suits. Armani was the first suit I ever wore when I popped my cherry. Actually, Armani was always my fall back suit for almost every first I had. It was my comfort zone.

I grabbed one of the many Armani suits, along with a grey button down and laid them on my bed. There’s nothing like a suit that told people, “You’ve fucked with the wrong one,” and I was the wrong one.

I showered quickly, dressed, adding Italian on my feet and wrist, Austrian in my holster, and Cuban inside my inner jacket pocket.

              When I pulled up to the warehouse, I didn’t see the truck. I drove around to the back of the warehouse where we kept a small hutch-like structure that we used as a private office and found Darrell’s Suburban. I climbed out of my Mustang, getting my mind ready to deal with whatever the right side of this storm was going to bring.

I entered the small space that just held a metal desk, chair and two tall cabinets. Darrell and Hugo were inside waiting for me.

My eyes instantly went to Hugo.

“What the hell happened to you?” I asked.

Hugo inadvertently touched the side of his head. “Bar fight last night. That’s all.”

I could tell that something hard had hit him on the side of his head based on the bruising. I doubted the bruise had come from a fist.

“Shit, it looks to me like you lost,” I told him.

Hugo’s face frowned. “Bullshit.”

I smirked at him and shook my head. “Yeah, right.”

I turned to a very unusually quiet Darrell, asking, “Why am I here?”

I sat down on the desk and waited for one of them to speak.

Darrell finally took a deep breath and said, “I happen to stumble on some news. I received a call today that a Don, originating from the San Francisco area, just landed in Philly.”

It wasn’t odd that another family had come into the city. It happened all the time in fact. There were a lot of families in this territory. I was sure they got many visitors from outside of this city. I wasn’t sure why Darrell was telling me this shit. Okay, fuck, I knew exactly why he was telling me. I had told Darrell about my suspicions that Raquel was holding shit from me and that something went down with her in San Fran. It was too coincidental that a Don from San Fran was coming here. Fuck…

I sat up straight. “What family came to visit?”

Darrell shifted in his stance nervously and that put me a little on edge. “Basile.”

I didn’t reply, so Darrell continued, “I learned that they came in town specifically to meet with the Don later today.”